Imagine a Black woman head coach in the NBA. In this time.

Dawn Staley’s resume demonstrates that she's capable. Trump would have had a meltdown.

By Carron J. Phillips

In sports and in life, sometimes you have to take a win any way you can get it—even if it’s just a hypothetical one.

The New York Knicks hiring Dawn Staley as head coach was always a long shot. But that pipe dream would have been a nightmare for President Donald Trump.

The Knicks, the president's hometown team, recently reached out to the current head coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team regarding their job opening for head coach. Reports initially indicated that Staley was among several candidates, including Mike Brown, Taylor Jenkins, and Micah Nori, who had been interviewed or contacted by the franchise. Given that there has never been a full-time female head coach in NBA history, it always seemed unlikely that Staley would be coaching at Madison Square Garden next season. On Wednesday, news broke that Brown had been hired.

On paper, Staley had the most impressive resume of the bunch—by far. She's already a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player. As a head coach, she boasts a winning percentage of 77.4%, with a 172-80 record at Temple and 475-110 at South Carolina. At South Carolina, she has secured three national championships, the most recent after an undefeated season. Staley is recognized as the best coach in the history of both programs and is the most important Black coach in basketball history, regardless of gender. There is no Black basketball coach—dead or alive, in college sports, the WNBA, or the NBA—who has won more championships. This powerful rebuttal to misogyny is often overlooked.

In 2021, the Portland Trail Blazers were in a similar situation when they reached out to Staley about their head coaching vacancy. “I come with a lot of credentials,” she told the New York Times. “I surely have the confidence. I surely can stand in front of men and lead them. First-team All-Stars. MVPs. I’m OK with that.”

“I haven’t coached in the league,” Staley explained. “But you know what? I’m a quick learn."

Through the years, she has been candid about receiving offers from professional teams. “I appreciated the consideration, but, in the end, it reminded me why coaching young women remains the ideal scenario for me,” Staley wrote in her book, “Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother, and Life Lessons I Learned from All Three,” published in May. “Over the years, several WNBA teams have gauged my interest in coming on board. I don't want to coach in the WNBA, never have. If I jump over, I want ownership,” she added.

Though some might wonder why Trump’s reaction to the Knicks' search for a head coach is worth considering, it's important to recognize his history of meddling in other people's business, particularly in sports. We find ourselves in a situation in which we often have to anticipate how Trump will respond to various events, as our reality is significantly shaped by unpredictable, toddler-like behavior from the man who occupies the Oval Office. This is evident in the way we frequently speculate about whether championship teams will visit the White House. Staley’s 2017 team, for example, declined an invitation after not initially being invited. Her 2024 championship team visited President Joe Biden. A native Philadelphian, Staley watched her beloved Eagles cave and visit Trump’s White House.

The idea of a woman, especially a Black woman, becoming the head coach of his hometown Knicks would have led to a barrage of racist and misogynistic comments on social media. It would have been followed by obnoxious public statements and negative attention directed at the franchise. From Vice President Kamala Harris to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Trump has consistently shown he despises overqualified Black women in positions of power. Staley undoubtedly would have faced the same disrespect and ridicule.

In South Carolina, where she’s adored, the Confederate flag was taken down from the statehouse only two years before Staley won her first national title. South Carolina is a complex place. It represents Trump’s baser instincts, including his obsession with glorifying Confederate generals who lost the war, but it also honored Staley and A’ja Wilson, her former star player, with statues.

At the statue unveiling this year, Staley explained why it matters. “Globally, women occupy only 33% of leadership roles across all industries and only 10% of all Fortune 500 CEOs are women, which means we are effectively locked out of the boardrooms where decisions are made for and about us,” she said. “So I agreed to the statue, not for me, but for the girl who will walk by one day and wonder who I was. Maybe, she’ll look me up. She’ll see that I did some things in basketball, of course, but I hope she sees much more. I hope she sees that I was a champion for equity and equality, that in my own way, I pushed for change, that I stood proudly in the space God called me to inhabit, but as a regular girl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn’t have to knock as hard.”

In the coming days, the New York Knicks will hold a press conference to introduce Mike Brown. Only the Knicks’ front office knows whether they were genuinely interested in Dawn Staley or if they were merely trying to create the impression of pursuing a historic hire.

At some point, a woman will break through the glass ceiling in NBA coaching. When that day arrives, I hope for two things. First, that people recognize that Staley played a significant role in moving things forward. And second, that we then live in a society that celebrates this future pioneer rather than one in which the occupant of the White House criticizes her for nothing more than who she is.

Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University.

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